The Virtual Data Center (VDC) isn’t just the application workloads in the cloud. It’s also the network, security, management, and infrastructure. Examples are DNS and directory services. It usually provides a private connection back to an on-premises network or datacenter. As more and more workloads move to Azure, it’s important to think about the supporting infrastructure and objects that these workloads are placed in. Think carefully about how resources are structured to avoid the proliferation of hundreds of workload islands that must be managed separately with independent data flow, security models, and compliance challenges.

Virtual network peering gives Azure customers a way to provide managed access to Azure for multiple lines of business (LOB) or to merge teams from different companies. Written by Lamia Youseff and Nanette Ray from the Azure Customer Advisory Team (AzureCAT), this white paper covers the two main network topologies used by Azure customers: mesh networks and hub-and-spoke networks, and shows how enterprises work with, or around, the default maximum number of peering links.